Indian headdress with whirling feathers



June 1, 1954 H. c. LEARNARD 2,679,711

INDIAN HEADDRESS WITH WHIRLING FEATHERS Filed June 28, 1951 38 Hi 20a V/l/l/A lli'l/II/I/ In w v IN V EN TOR. PE 16 P6 l/l/PHM a. AfA/"F/V/I/PD dam A TTORNEY Patented June 1, 1954 UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE INDIAN HEADDRESS WITH WHIRLING' FEATHERS Hiram C. Learnard, Babylon, N. Y., assignor to Empress Novelty Company, Bronx, N. Y.

1 Claim.

This invention relates to an Indian headdress with whirling feathers.

The principal object of this invention is the provision of an Indian headdress having whirling feathers and.- intended for use by children. The headdress is open and it is made of straps or bands detachably fastened. together. One of the straps or bands encircles the head. The other strap or band extends across the crown of the head.

Rotatably mounted on the strap or band which extends across the crown of the head is a hub and secured to said hub is a plurality of feathers.

These feathers are equally spaced from each other ,in vertical section, showing the spindle on which and they occupy a substantially common plane. They may or may not project radially of the hub; in the preferred form of this invention, they project along lines which are neither radial nor tangential but somewhere in between.

More specifically, the feathers are secured to the hub by means of their quills which nest in wells formed in the hub for that purpose. The feathers are turned at an angle to the plane on which they are all disposed, substantially in the manner in which the blades of a fan or propeller are turned or biased so as to catch or bite into the air.

cement which fastens their quills in the individual hub well in which they are disposed.

Another object of this invention is the provision of an Indian headdress of the character described which is made of straps or bands held together by detachable means which inexperienced children may readily manipulate with a minimum of instruction. Only two straps or bands are provided and they are made, preferably, of extruded plastics. Oneend of the strap or band which encircles the head is provided with a series of openings, preferably of keyhole.

iape, and the opposite end is shaped to lock with said keyhole shaped openings. The headdress may be adjusted in size, depending upon which keyhole shaped opening the opposite end of said strap engages. The ends of the strap or band which extend across the crown of the head are also provided with similar fastening means. One of the ends of said strap or band is provided with an opening, preferably of keyhole shape. It is by means of this opening that the crown strap or band may be brought into locking engagement with the second mentioned end of the strap which encircles the head. The head encircling strap is provided with a longitudinally extending slot in- The feathers are secured in their re-, spective positions by means of an adhesive or iii 2 termediate its ends and the opposite end of the crown strap isshaped to engage said slot.

The inventionv herein claimed is illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. l is a side view of an Indian headdress made in accordance with this invention, showing said headdress completely set up and ready for use.

Fig. 2 is a front view thereof.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary plan view of the hub which carries the feathers, said hub being partly broken away to show how the quills of the feathers are nested therein.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary view, partly the feathered hub is rotatably mounted andshowing how said spindle may be secured to the crown strap of the headdress.

Fig. 5 is a plan view. of the head band and crown strap which together constitute the headdress when they are properly set up and joined together.

Fig. 6 is a. sectional fragmentary view showing another method of aflixing the hub carrying spindle to the crown strap of the headdress.

Fig. 7 is av view similar to that of Fig. 3 showing a feather carrying hub in which the quills of the feathers are arranged radially therein.

The Indian headdress l0 shown in the drawing comprises a headdress l2 proper and a hub M which is rotatably mounted thereon and which carries a plurality of feathers l 6. The headdress proper consists of two bands or straps: a head band IB which encircles the head at the forehead and above the ears, and a crown strap 20 which extends across the crown of the head from the forehead to the back of the head.

It will be noted in Fig. 5 that the head encircling band I8 is an elongated strip or strap of suitable material, preferably extruded plastics, having a plurality of keyhole shaped openings 22 formed at one end thereof and. a single key 24 formed at the opposite end thereof. Key 24 is engageable with any one of the keyhole shaped openings 22 so as to form a head encircling band by joinder of the two ends of the strap as Fig. 2 clearly shows. A slot 26 is formed in bandl8, longitudinally thereof, and intermediate the two ends of said band, for a purpose which will shortly appear.

Crown strap 29 is also provided with a key 28 at one end and a slot 30 at its opposite end, said strap constituting an elongated strip or strap of suitable material, such as extruded plastics, and said slot 30 extending longitudinally thereof.

Crown strap 20 is considerably shorter than head band I8 because it extends across the crown of the head only and its ends do not meet, as is the case with the head band. A circular hole 32 is formed in crown strap 20, somewhat closer to key 28 than to slot 30. The function of this hole will also shortly appear.

The head band and the crown strap shown in Fig. may be assembled in the following manner: The two ends of the head band are brought over into overlapping positions and key 24 is brought into engagement with the appropriate keyhole 22 so as to interlock the two ends of the head band the one end of the crown strap are joined as Fig. 1

clearly shows.

Key 28 at the opposite end of the crown strap is now brought over into engagement with slot 26 of the hat band, this being done by arching the crown strap in the manner shown in Fig. 1. The two ends of the crown strap are now securely fastened to the head band. It should be understood, however, that the two ends of the head encircling band are detachable from each other and the two ends of the crown strap are detachable from the head encircling band.

A spindle 34 is secured to crown strap 20. More specifically, the lower end of the spindle is provided with a reduced portion 36 which projects into and through hole 32 of the crown strap. The outwardly projecting end of reduced portion 36 may be swaged over so as to rivet the spindle to the strap. This is shown in Fig. 4. The spindle is also made, preferably, of extruded plastics and a plastic cement or solvent may be used to secure the reduced end of said spindle to the strap.

A variation of this construction is shown in Fig. 6. Spindle 38 shown in Fig. 6 is identical with spindle 34 shown in Fig. 4 except that its lower end is not reduced. It is inserted into a hole 32a in crown strap a, corresponding to hole 32 in crown strap 20. Hole 32a is, of course, large enough to accommodate spindle 38. A suitable cement or solvent may also be employed in this connection to fixedly secure the spindle to the strap.

A pin 40 is secured to the upper end of spindle 34 (as well as spindle 38) and it is on said pin that hub 14 is rotatably mounted. The pin has a head to prevent dislodgment of the hub. It will be understood that the pin may be press-fitted into a preformed hole in the spindle. The hole may extend longitudinally of the spindle along its full length and it may be formed in the stock of which the spindle is made during the course of the extruding operation.

Hub l4 may have an eye or hollow rivet 42 applied thereto, centrally thereof, to provide a satisfactory bearing for the pin. The hub may be made of any suitable material, preferably of light weight, and one suitable material is pressed paper or cardboard. Several layers l4a, l4b and Me of pressed paper or cardboard are shown in the drawing and these layers may be cemented together to form an integral unit. A sheet of finishing paper [411 may be applied to the top of the hub and a similar sheet of finishing paper He may be applied to the bottom of the hub, the two sheets of paper being also glued or cemented to the cardboard layers or laminations.

The innermost ply or layer MD has a plurality of wells 44 formed therein to accommodate the quills 16a of feathers I6. These wells 44 are equidistant from each other and they all bear the same angular relationship to the center of the hub. More specifically, in the preferred form of this invention, these wells project substantially midway between flanking radial and tangential lines. Stated differently, each well is approximately 45 degrees removed from the radial line which it intersects at the peripheral or circumferential edge of the hub. The quills may be press-fitted into the wells and they may also be glued therein to prevent dislodgment thereof. It will be noted in the drawing that the feathers are oriented at an angle relative to the plane of the hub so as to provide sufiicient pitch to catch the wind, and thereby cause the feathers and hub to rotate integrally with each other about the axis of the hub.

Hub shown in Fig. 7 is made in substantially the same way as hub I 4 shown in Fig. 3. Its wells 52 are oriented differently from wells 44 of hub l4 in that they are arranged radially of the hub as Fig. 7 clearly shows. Since wells 52 extend radially of hub 50, feathers l6 will similarly be disposed radially of the hub.

The foregoing is descriptive of a preferred form of this invention and it will clearly be understood that this preferred form may be modified and other forms may be provided within the broad spirit of the invention and the broad scope of the claim.

' I claim:

An Indian headdress of the character described, comprising an open headdress consisting of an adjustable, head encircling band consisting of a strap whose ends are detachably and adjustably secured to each other, and a second strap which extends across the crown of the head and which is detachably fastened at each end thereof to said head encircling band, a hub rotatably mounted on said second strap, the axis of said hub being slightly inclined relative to the vertical so as to present the upper face of the hub partly upwardly and partly forwardly, a plurality of equally spaced wells formed in said hub, said wells being formed along the circumferential edge of said hub and extending inwardly into said hub in the general direction of the center of the hub, and a plurality of feathers whose quills are nested in said wells and secured therein by means of an adhesive, said feathers being equally spaced from each other and being disposed on a substantially common plane, said feathers being individually biased relative to said plane in fan-like arrangement.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 177,155 Raffa May 9, 1876 582,167 Bernheimer May 11, 1897 1,329,044 Farnam Jan. 27, 1920 1,551,454 Bacon Aug. 25, 1925 1,630,852 Kuester May 31, 1927 1,851,806 Brown Mar. 29, 1932 

